Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1887-09-16

III JUucS IIES q SiiN Cl IL luz pctJ LIZ
shouted, This Congress, men o
| America, is the first in a reverend
: ing succession Of Congresses !"
However ardent the Congress
might be in spirit, it made no attempt
! to govern, or even to bring matters
! to q crisis, but contented itself with
drawing up conciliatory addresses to
King, Parliament, and people, beg.
gipg them to be reasonable.
Reason was neither in King nor in
Parliament, and the people had nc
voice in the matter,so long before the
battles of Lexington ard Concord Put
an end to all hopes OF all understand
ing. Events followed with such ap-
palling rapidity, that before King
George was done declaring that the
Americans would not fight, they had
raised an army; appointed Col. Geo.
Washington, Commander-in Chief ;
and on the Fourth Of July, l776, the
Declaration Of Inpependence. the
Magma Charta Of American liberty,
was read from the steps Of the State
; House in Philadelphia, amid the huz'
zas of thousands, and to the boom,
boom, boom, of the Old Liberty Bell.
The Declaration of Independence
is the first state-paper where the Col
onies are called "1'he United States
OF Amrrica."
But the great difficulty which this
Congress, as well as those whose
followed it, had to overcome, was
that it possessed 10 power to COM
pei States or individuals to DO It's
bidding, and if General Washington,
recognizing its hopelessness, had not
in December, l1I6, asked it to be-
stow upon him extraordinary powers,
make him, in fact, a military dictator
for tie emergency, there would have
been 10 army wherewith to beat
the British.
Warned by this experience, the
States granted enlarged powers to
subsequent Congresses; and in 1871
really bestowed considerable author
ity upon the General Government;
so in one one way and another, by
hoek or crook, the storm wGs weath-
cred, and the far more intricate con-
Germs Of peace stared the Confedera-
iicn IN the face. It soon became GER
tain that if it's Congress had bleI
poorly fitted to equip and pay armies
it was as lily qualified to raise reve-
Hue, regulate commerce, or even set
tie foreign relations. It might make
treaties, hut if the States refused to
ratify them, it became the laughing
stock of Europe, and although it had
incurred its crushing 4eEt solely to
secure the liberty of the States, 50 jeal-
Gus were they, that they would not
hear even of tex to pay the inter-
est long long since overdue.
In vain, Alexander Hamilton,
George Washington, and Robert
Morris, tr;eq to prose lls5 onlGrg,
ing the powers of the Confederation
would not weaken the States, nor en-
danger the hardly-won personal free
dom; the fear was so potent that if
powerful rebellion had not broken out
in Western MASSACHUSETTS, in necem-
Der, 1856, it is doubtful if any atton-
ton would have been paid to the rec
ommmendation Of Convention
which had been sitting at Annapolis
in September of that year-that an as
sembly of delegates from all the
States shoald consider the situation
of the United States. The Annapo-
lis Convention whose main purpose
was to regulate commerce between
the States, was proposed by General
Washington; but to Alexander Ham
ilton belongs the honor of suggesting
the national assembly which produc
ed onr present COlstitatio4.
The Congress OF the Confederation,
after long delay and many express
ions of disapprobation, at last resolv-
ed, it was desirable that Conven-
tion should be held, in Independence
Chamber, on the second Monday Of
May, 1881, to revise the Articles of
Confederation.
So bitter was the opposition, that
as soon as the date was decided
Washington was persuaded to prom
ise he woald act IS it's President, and
for fear accident might preyent his
presence, Benjamin Franklin, over
eighty years old, and covered with
honors from every European nation,
was elected delegate fron Pennsyl-
vania (although at that TIME he was its
Governor }, for it was certain that af-
ter Washington there was no other
man in the country upon whom all
could uu,ts.
1t was not until the twenty-fifth
day of May that enough delegates
arrived to attempt organization; then
in pouring rain, the members
marched through the streets, into the
vestiblle, end took their seats in the
east room on the ground Hoor of the
Old State House in Philadelp hia.
In the same room the Declaration
of Independence had been signed
eleven years before: and there W ash
iugton had been made Commander Of
the American Army in June, l775.
1t locks today just as it
looked to Washington, Frank
lin and Hamilton q centu-
ry ago. You seq the same broad
wainscoting, tiuted pilasters, and
slender Dcric pillars; the chair Wash
ington occupied as President; the ta-
bic where the Constitution was laid,
and the inkstand into which each
delegate dipped his pen as be sigued
the document which b Is ma6e of the
United States rich and powerful
nation, intead Of struggling cluster
of shifting governments, like the
South American Republics.
The Convention sat for four
months With closd doors. bound to
secrecy, and never to publish a for
NAL record Of its proceedings. The
little we can gather comes from jour-
nols kept by the delegates. and from
detailed account written by Mr..
Madison each night before he went
to bed. AS the vote was always ta-
ken by States, we do not know how
individuals stood upon any of the
raore Important questions: but we do
know the delegates divided into two
| urcat portiac. ora favorinp q SfrODp